Evangelism: Too Easily Converted
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My
word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free."
--John 8:31-32
First, we must consider the person who becomes a disciple of Christ
on impulse. This is likely to be the person who came in on a wave of
enthusiasm, and I am a little bit suspicious of anyone who is too
easily converted. I have a feeling that if he or she can be easily
converted to Christ, he or she may be very easily flipped back the
other way. I am concerned about the person who just yields, who has
no sales resistance at all....
Actually, I go along with the man or woman who is thoughtful enough
about this decision to say truthfully: "I want a day to think this
over," or "I want a week to read the Bible and to meditate on what
this decision means."
I have never considered it a very great compliment to the Christian
church that we can generate enthusiasm on such short notice. The less
there is in the kettle, the quicker it begins to boil. There are some
who get converted on enthusiasm and backslide on principle!
Faith Beyond Reason, pp. 55-57
Evangelism: Spiritually Worthy
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to
depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father,
"Which," He said, "you have heard from Me."
--Acts 1:4
The task of the church is twofold: to spread Christianity throughout
the world and to make sure that the Christianity she spreads is the
pure New Testament kind....
Christianity will always reproduce itself after its kind. A worldly-
minded, unspiritual church, when she crosses the ocean to give her
witness to peoples of other tongues and other cultures, is sure to
bring forth on other shores a Christianity much like her own....
The popular notion that the first obligation of the church is to
spread the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth is false. Her
first obligation is to be spiritually worthy to spread it. Our Lord
said "Go ye," but He also said, "Tarry ye," and the tarrying had to
come before the going. Had the disciples gone forth as missionaries
before the day of Pentecost it would have been an overwhelming
spiritual disaster, for they could have done no more than make
converts after their likeness, and this would have altered for the
worse the whole history of the Western world and had consequences
throughout the ages to come. Of God and Men, 35-37.
Evangelism: Be Prepared
And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature."
--Mark 16:15
Recall what happened when Jesus said to the disciples, "Go into all
the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15).
Peter jumped up right away, grabbed his hat and would have been on his
way, but Jesus stopped him, and said, "Not yet, Peter! Don't go like
that. Tarry until you are endued with power from on high, and then
go!"
I believe that our Lord wants us to learn more of Him in worship
before we become busy for Him. He wants us to have a gift of the
Spirit, an inner experience of the heart, as our first service, and
out of that will grow the profound and deep and divine activities
which are necessary. I Talk Back to the Devil, 139.
Evangelism: Early Church Methods
Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one
soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed
was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great
power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.
--Acts 4:32-33
A friend of mine went to see a man who was the head of a local
communist cell in a local communist headquarters where they send out
literature. The communist said, "Come in, Reverend, and sit down."
He went in and sat. "Now, we're communists," he said, "you know that,
and you're a minister. Of course, we're miles apart. But," he said,
"I want to tell you something. We learned our technique from your
book of Acts." He said, "We learned how to win and conquer from your
book of Acts." And he said, "You who believe the Bible have thrown
overboard the methods of the early church and we who don't believe it
have adopted them and they're working."
What was the method? It's a very simple method of the early church.
It was to go witness, give everything to the Lord and give up all to
God and bear your cross, take the consequences. The result was in the
first hundred years of the Christian church the whole known world was
evangelized. Success and the Christian, 10-11.
Evangelism: She Had to Tell Someone
Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be
the Christ?
--John 4:30
Spiritual experiences must be shared. It is not possible for very long
to enjoy them alone. The very attempt to do so will destroy them.
The reason for this is obvious. The nearer our souls draw to God the
larger our love will grow, and the greater our love the more unselfish
we shall become and the greater our care for the souls of others.
Hence increased spiritual experience, so far as it is genuine, brings
with it a strong desire that others may know the same grace that we
ourselves enjoy. This leads quite naturally to an increased effort to
lead others to a closer and more satisfying fellowship with God....
The impulse to share, to impart, normally accompanies any true
encounter with God and spiritual things. The woman at the well, after
her soul-inspiring meeting with Jesus, left her waterpots, hurried
into the city and tried to persuade her friends to come out and meet
Him. "Come, see a man," she said, "which told me all things that ever
I did: is not this the Christ?" Her spiritual excitement could not be
contained within her own heart. She had to tell someone. The Set of
the Sail, 50-51.
Evangelism: Sovereign Obligation
I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to
unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to
you who are in Rome also.
--Romans 1:14,15
That is why I say that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is something
more than making us the happiest people in the Easter parade. Are we
to listen to a cantata, join in singing "Up from the Grave He Arose,"
smell the lilies and go home and forget it? No, certainly not!
The resurrection of Jesus Christ lays hold on us with all the
authority of sovereign obligation. It says that the Christian church
is to go and make disciples--to go and make disciples of all nations.
The moral obligation of the resurrection of Christ is the missionary
obligation--the responsibility and privilege of personally carrying
the message, of interceding for those who go, of being involved
financially in the cause of world evangelization. Tragedy in the
Church: The Missing Gifts, 90.
Evangelism: God is Depending on Us
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him love....
--Ephesians 1:4
Sin is a disease. It is lawlessness. It is rebellion. It is
transgression--but it is also a wasting of the most precious of all
treasures on earth. The man who dies out of Christ is said to be lost,
and hardly a word in the English tongue expresses his condition with
greater accuracy. He has squandered a rare fortune and at the last he
stands for a fleeting moment and looks around, a moral fool, a wastrel
who has lost in one overwhelming and irrecoverable loss, his soul, his
life, his peace, his total mysterious personality, his dear and
everlasting all!
Oh, how can we get men and women around us to realize that God
Almighty, before the beginning of the world, loved them, and thought
about them, planning redemption and salvation and forgiveness?
Christian brethren, why are we not more faithful and serious in
proclaiming God's great eternal concerns?
How is this world all around us ever to learn that God is all in all
unless we are faithful in our witness?
In a time when everything in the world seems to be vanity, God is
depending on us to proclaim that He is the great Reality, and that
only He can give meaning to all other realities. Christ the Eternal
Son, 48.
Evangelism: Not Willing to Take Contempt
But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to
myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry
which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of
the grace of God.
--Acts 20:24
We are 20th century Christians. Some of us are Christians only
because it is convenient and pleasant and because it is not costing
us anything. But here is the truth, whether we like it or not: the
average evangelical Christian who claims to be born again and have
eternal life is not doing as much to propagate his or her faith as
the busy adherents of the cults handing out their papers on the
street corners and visiting from house to house.
We are not willing to take the spit and the contempt and the abuses
those cultists take as they knock on doors and try to persuade
everyone to follow them in their mistaken beliefs. The cultists can
teach us much about zeal and effort and sacrifice, but most of us do
not want to get that serious about our faith--or our Savior. Jesus Is
Victor!, 114,115.
Evangelism: Calling Us Back
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"
--Genesis 3:9
Although the human mind stubbornly resists and resents the
suggestion that it is a sick, fallen planet upon which we ride,
everything within our consciousness, our innermost spirit, confirms
that the voice of God is sounding in this world--the voice of God
calling, seeking, beckoning to lost men and women!...
Sacred revelation declares plainly that the inhabitants of the
earth are lost. They are lost by a mighty calamitous visitation of
woe which came upon them somewhere in that distant past and is
still upon them.
But it also reveals a glorious fact--that this lost race has not
been given up!
There is a divine voice that continues to call. It is the voice of
the Creator, God, and it is entreating them.
Just as the shepherd went everywhere searching for his sheep, just
as the woman in the parable went everywhere searching for her coins,
so there is a divine search with many variations of the voice that
entreats us, calling us back.... Echoes from Eden, 3,8.
Evangelism: The Desperate Personal Search
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father in heaven.
--Matthew 5:16
The average person in the world today, without faith and without God
and without hope, is engaged in a desperate personal search throughout
his lifetime. He does not really know where he has been. He does not
really know what he is doing here and now. He does not know where he
is going.
The sad commentary is that he is doing it all on borrowed time and
borrowed money and borrowed strength--and he already knows that in the
end he will surely die! It boils down to the bewildered confession of
many that "we have lost God somewhere along the way."...
Man, made more like God than any other creature, has become less like
God than any other creature. Created to reflect the glory of God, he
has retreated sullenly into his cave--reflecting only his own
sinfulness.
Certainly it is a tragedy above all tragedies in this world that man,
made with a soul to worship and praise and sing to God's glory, now
sulks silently in his cave. Love has gone from his heart. Light has
gone from his mind. Having lost God, he blindly stumbles on through
this dark world to find only a grave at the end. Whatever Happened
to Worship?, 65-66.
Evangelism: At Ease While the World Burns
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading
through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
--2 Corinthians 5:20
The fall of man has created a perpetual crisis. It will last until
sin has been put down and Christ reigns over a redeemed and restored
world.
Until that time the earth remains a disaster area and its inhabitants
live in a state of extraordinary emergency....
To me, it has always been difficult to understand those evangelical
Christians who insist upon living in the crisis as if no crisis
existed. They say they serve the Lord, but they divide their days so
as to leave plenty of time to play and loaf and enjoy the pleasures
of the world as well. They are at ease while the world burns....
I wonder whether such Christians actually believe in the Fall of man!
Renewed Day by Day, Jan. 17.
Evangelism: A Cheap Salvation
But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in
craftiness and handling the word of God deceitfully, but by
manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God.
--2 Corinthians 4:2
Here again is seen the glaring discrepancy between Biblical
Christianity and that of present-day evangelicals, particularly
in the United States....
To make converts here we are forced to play down the difficulties
and play up the peace of mind and worldly success enjoyed by those
who accept Christ. We must assure our hearers that Christianity is
now a proper and respectable thing and that Christ has become quite
popular with political bigwigs, well-to-do business tycoons and the
Hollywood swimming pool set. Thus assured, hell-deserving sinners
are coming in droves to "accept" Christ for what they can get out
of Him; and though one now and again may drop a tear as proof of
his sincerity, it is hard to escape the conclusion that most of
them are stooping to patronize the Lord of glory much as a young
couple might fawn on a boresome but rich old uncle in order to be
mentioned in his will later on. Born After Midnight, 17.
Evangelism: Man-centered Christianity
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory
and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours;
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all.
--1 Chronicles 29:11
Christianity today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is made to
wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims of men. The image of
God currently popular is that of a distracted Father, struggling in
heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Saviour of whom
they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest. To
persuade these self-sufficient souls to respond to His generous
offers God will do almost anything, even using salesmanship methods
and talking down to them in the chummiest way imaginable. This view
of things is, of course, a kind of religious romanticism which,
while it often uses flattering and sometimes embarrassing terms in
praise of God, manages nevertheless to make man the star of the
show. Man: The Dwelling Place of God, p. 27
Evangelism: Trying to Decide
For He says, "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day
of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
--2 Corinthians 6:2
This is so desperately a matter of importance for every human being
who comes into the world that I first become indignant, and then I
become sad, when I try to give spiritual counsel to a person who
looks me in the eye and tells me: "Well, I am trying to make up my
mind if I should accept Christ or not."
Such a person gives absolutely no indication that he realizes he is
talking about the most important decision he can make in his
lifetime--a decision to get right with God, to believe in the
eternal Son, the Savior, to become a disciple, an obedient witness
to Jesus Christ as Lord.
How can any man or woman, lost and undone, sinful and wretched,
alienated from God, stand there and intimate that the death and
Resurrection of Jesus Christ and God's revealed plan of salvation
do not take priority over some of life's other decisions? Christ
the Eternal Son, 121-122.
Evangelism: Gospel Implications
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.
--Titus 2:11-12
The fact is that the New Testament message embraces a great deal
more than an offer of free pardon. It is a message of pardon, and
for that may God be praised; but it is also a message of
repentance. It is a message of atonement, but it is also a message
of temperance and righteousness and godliness in this present world.
It tells us that we must accept a Savior, but it tells us also that
we must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. The gospel message
includes the idea of amendment, of separation from the world, of
cross-carrying and loyalty to the kingdom of God even unto death.
To be strictly technical, these latter truths are corollaries of the
gospel, and not the gospel itself; but they are part and parcel of
the total message which we are commissioned to declare....
To offer a sinner the gift of salvation based upon the work of
Christ, while at the same time allowing him to retain the idea that
the gift carries with it no moral implications, is to do him untold
injury where it hurts him worst. The Set of the Sail, 19-20.
Evangelism: Such a Short Time
So he said to him, "Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding
garment?" And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants,
"Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer
darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
--Matthew 22:12-13
..we have such a short time to prepare for such a long time. By that
I mean we have now to prepare for then. We have an hour to prepare
for eternity. To fail to prepare is an act of moral folly. For anyone
to have a day given to prepare, it is an act of inexcusable folly to
let anything hinder that preparation. If we find ourselves in a
spiritual rut, nothing in the world should hinder us. Nothing in this
world is worth it. If we believe in eternity, if we believe in God,
if we believe in the eternal existence of the soul, then there is
nothing important enough to cause us to commit such an act of moral
folly.
Failing to get ready in time for eternity, and failing to get ready
now for the great then that lies out yonder, is a trap in plain
sight. There is an odd saying in the Old Testament, "How useless to
spread a net in full view of all the birds" (Proverbs 1:17). When the
man of God wrote that, he gave the birds a little credit. It would be
silly for a bird watching me set the trap to conveniently fly down
and get into it. Yet there are people doing that all the time. People
who have to live for eternity fall into that trap set for them in
plain sight. Rut, Rot or Revival: The Condition of the Church, 87-88.
Evangelism: "I Gave It All Up!"
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things
have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
--2 Corinthians 5:17
I have been asked more than once what I gave up when I was converted
and became a believing child of God. I was a young man, and I well
remember that I gave up the hot and smelly rubber factory. I was
making tires for an hourly wage, and I gave that up to follow
Christ's call into Christian ministry and service.
As a youth I was scared of life and I was scared of death--and I gave
that up. I was miserable and glum and unfulfilled--and I gave that
up. I had selfish earthly and material ambitions that I could never
have achieved--and I gave them up.
That forms the outline of the worthless things that I gave up. And
I soon discovered that in Jesus Christ, God had given me everything
that is worthwhile.
If God takes away from us the old, wrinkled, beat-up dollar bill we
have clutched so desperately, it is only because He wants to
exchange it for the whole Federal mint, the entire treasury! He is
saying to us, "I have in store for you all the resources of heaven.
Help yourself!"
Jesus, Author of our Faith, pp. 49-50
Evangelism: A Bond of Compassion
Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes
forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again
with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
--Psalm 126:5-6
The testimony of the true follower of Christ might well be something
like this: The world's pleasures and the world's treasures
henceforth have no appeal for me. I reckon myself crucified to the
world and the world crucified to me. But the multitudes that were so
dear to Christ shall not be less dear to me. If I cannot prevent
their moral suicide, I shall at least baptize them with my human
tears. I want no blessing that I cannot share. I seek no
spirituality that I must win at the cost of forgetting that men and
women are lost and without hope. If in spite of all I can do they
will sin against light and bring upon themselves the displeasure of
a holy God, then I must not let them go their sad way unwept. I
scorn a happiness that I must purchase with ignorance. I reject a
heaven that I must enter by shutting my eyes to the sufferings of my
fellow men. I choose a broken heart rather than any happiness that
ignores the tragedy of human life and human death. Though I, through
the grace of God in Christ, no longer lie under Adam's sin, I would
still feel a bond of compassion for all of Adam's tragic race, and
I am determined that I shall go down to the grave or up into God's
heaven mourning for the lost and the perishing.
And thus and thus will I do as God enables me. Amen.
The Next Chapter After the Last, p. 36
Evangelism: Conviction and Pain
So I said, "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
--Isaiah 6:5
When Isaiah cried out, "I am undone!" it was a cry of pain. It was
the revealing cry of conscious uncleanness. He was experiencing the
undoneness of the creature set over against the holiness of the
Creator.
What should happen in genuine conversion? What should a man or woman
feel in the transaction of the new birth?
There ought to be that real and genuine cry of pain. That is why I
do not like the kind of evangelism that tries to invite people into
the fellowship of God by signing a card.
There should be a birth from above and within. There should be the
terror of seeing ourselves in violent contrast to the holy, holy,
holy God. Unless we come into this place of conviction and pain, I
am not sure how deep and real our repentance will ever be.
Whatever Happened to Worship? p. 76
Evangelism: Saved to Worship
Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come
before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
--1 Chronicles 16:29
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with signing a card. It can be a
helpful thing so we know who has made inquiry.
But really, my brother or sister, we are brought to God and to faith
and to salvation that we might worship and adore Him. We do not come
to God that we might be automatic Christians, cookie-cutter
Christians, Christians stamped out with a die.
God has provided His salvation that we might be, individually and
personally, vibrant children of God, loving God with all our hearts
and worshiping Him in the beauty of holiness.
Whatever Happened to Worship? p. 14
